Tyler, the Creator Joins List of Famous Artists Tapped for TV Show Songs

Tyler, the Creator Joins List of Famous Artists Tapped for TV Show Songs

Bill Nye, the man who some say is responsible for making science cool again, has one-upped himself on that front after tapping Tyler, the Creator to come up with the theme song for his new Netflix science series, Bill Nye Saves the World.

The theme song is almost like a modern-day remix of Nye’s PBS series, Bill Nye the Science Guy, with up-tempo, housey beats and the “Bill! Bill! Bill!” chant that was featured in the theme song for Nye's first show. Paying such homage was important for Tyler, he said a video posted to the Netflix show's Twitter account, especially since the hip-hop artist grew up watching Nye’s show on Saturday mornings “before the cartoons.”

In that video, Tyler and Nye discuss the new show’s theme music, and Tyler says it was the “really sick” original theme song that inspired his production for Bill Nye Saves the World.

“I love the fast-pacedness of it. You take out that snare, it could be a house song,” Tyler said.

During his PBS show’s run from 1994 to 1996, Nye captured the attention of millions of kids with his kooky experiments and visually creative explanations of all things science—like how the human heart works or how music can be put on a CD.

The trailer for Nye’s new Netflix show, which is being released on the streaming network Friday, appears to have several similar components—like blowing things up during lab experiments. Nye also continues to stay on the edgier side of science by tapping into celebrity culture: There are a few celeb sightings in the Bill Nye Saves the World trailer, including EDM guru Steve Aoki, the international DJ.

While cutting-edge, Nye isn’t the only TV show host to use a famous artist to compose theme music. Check out the list below of nine other musicians who were tapped to create theme songs:

1. Arthur: Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, children of legendary reggae singer Bob Marley, are the voices behind “the wonderful kind of day” belted out on the PBS kids show.

2. All That: Although it’s mostly TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez who is heard dropping bars on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series’s opening music, T-Boz and Chili can also be heard singing the melody of “All That.”

3. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will Smith wasn’t just the main character on the NBC sitcom: The Fresh Prince, aka Smith, and DJ Jazzy Jeff also produced and performed the show’s theme music.

4. The Big Bang Theory: The Bare Naked Ladies had already penned songs for TV shows in Canada before working on The Big Bang Theory’s “The History of Everything.”

5. The Affair: The Golden Globe-winning Showtime series pegged Grammy winner Fiona Apple to write and produce her first song for television.

6. South Park: The voice and sound of San Francisco rock band Primus has opened the Comedy Central series for more than 18 years.

7. Malcolm in the Middle: They Might Be Giants composed the theme song for the Fox series—and the group won its first Grammy for the work.

8. Spiderman: Although the superhero’s theme song was originally composed by Academy Award and Grammy winner Paul Francis Webster and Lolita composer J. Robert Harris back in 1967, the comic-turned-cartoon got an update in 1995 when the Ramones covered the some for their final album, Adios Amigos.

9. That ’70s Show: Todd Griffin provided the vocals for the first season of the Fox show, which featured a cover of Big Star’s “In the Streets,” but Cheap Trick’s rendition of the song was used for the following seven seasons.